Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COUNTY : Legislature Questions Cost of County’s New ‘Cadillac Jail’

Commit a crime, go to the Orange County Taj Mahal?

Legislators in Sacramento were figuratively asking that question as they complained about the “Cadillac jail” being built for the county.

The object of criticism is the half-finished, $60.2-million intake and release center. It is being constructed next to the main Orange County Jail in Santa Ana. When completed, the new building will house men and women inmates before they are sentenced. It will also be an interim holding facility, including for prisoners waiting to be bailed out.

The state legislators don’t question Orange County’s need for the jail intake center, mindful of the continuing pressure from the U.S. District Court to improve jail conditions in the county. But legislators and some state officials have questioned the need for a computerized prisoner-booking system, among other things. That computerized system would cost $431,000.

Another item of legislators’ concern is the cost per bed space. The 384-bed intake center is costing more than $156,000 a bed, and state official said that that maximum-security jails around the state are being built for an average of $55,000 a bed.

To underscore its concern, the Legislature recently passed and sent to Gov. George Deukmejian a bill that would require the state Board of Corrections to set cost guidelines for new jails. That bill, however, isn’t retroactive, and the Orange County Jail intake and release center won’t be affected.